FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Quote Source

“It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.”

Have the ministries of Good Shepherd been a blessing to you and your family over your time with us? Have they deepened your faith and the faith of your children and students? Have they helped you better understand who God is and just how much He loves you? Have they helped you serve Christ more faithfully? Have they offered hope or healing?

If so, you can help make sure those same ministries are available for generations to come through the Good Shepherd Legacy Endowment Fund.

The purpose of the Good Shepherd Legacy Endowment Fund is to provide members and friends of Good Shepherd Church the opportunity to create a long-lasting future for our ministries for many decades to come. Your generosity will help us ‘embody the transforming love of Jesus’ to people we may never meet, with names we may never know. You can do this by making charitable gifts either today or through future planned giving. Any of these gifts will become a permanent endowment and living memorial that will make sure Good Shepherd can minister to future generations.

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Letter From the Pastor

In 1992, God led 23 people in a living room to start a new church in an area without a church. Led by a desire to bring the good news of Jesus to a growing neighborhood, those first families had no idea the kind of impact God would allow Good Shepherd to have here. After 30+ years of ministry, Good Shepherd has shared the good news of Christ with many thousands of adults, students and children. And over that same time, we have seen it as our mission to go beyond simply telling people about the love of Christ, into tangible expressions designed to show them the love of Christ. We have shared the good news of Christ by our stories, through the scriptures and through prayer, to be sure. But we have also shared that good news by feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, building wheelchair ramps, and partnering with dozens of community organizations to accomplish our mission – ‘embodying the transforming love of Jesus in every relationship.’

And we believe that God is just getting started...

We hope you will prayerfully consider whether God might be calling you to give a gift now or in the future. And if He is calling you to do so, we hope you will take the simple steps described here to be faithful to that call.

In Christ,

Pastor Matt

 FAQs

  • Like your regular giving to the church, this fund helps Good Shepherd fulfill its mission in Cypress and beyond. Unlike your regular giving, the Legacy Fund helps to financially support the ministries of Good Shepherd Church that are not funded through the normal annual operating budget, or by supplementing ministries that are.

  • While both are important, we don’t want to sacrifice the present for the future. The endowment is for people who want to give over and above their normal giving or who want to engage in what is called ‘planned giving’ – through instruments like their estate/will, life insurance policies, etc.

  • The endowment fund will be administered by a 13-member endowment team of church leaders at the direction of the the Church Council. Assets of the fund are invested at an investment service provider named Texas Methodist Foundation, a non-profit investment ministry offering investment services to churches across Texas and New Mexico. Assets will be invested in a balanced and diversified mix of equities, fixed income, cash and inflation protected investments, and distributed, after maturity, based on a strict policy agreed upon by the committee with a focus on protecting the corpus of the fund. The objective of the investment and distribution strategy is to grow the fund in perpetuity, while helping support the future needs of the church.

  • As with any entity managing funds, there are fees. However, TMF’s nonprofit structure and its heart to support churches allows it to have a fee structure which is well below industry standards.

  • Donors may designate funds for a specific purpose and that would restrict those funds to only being used for the purposes named by the donor. However, we generally encourage donors to give undesignated funds when possible, as it allows the GSLEF to help meet the church’s needs at any given time, which may be different each year. However, every gift, whether designated or undesignated, is a blessing to the church.

  • Any of our Good Shepherd ministries can benefit from the gifts provided by the endowment fund and those needs will change from year to year and season to season. Support from the endowment will not be limited to current ministries only. The undesignated funds from the endowment can be used to help fund new mission needs, future capital projects, and new ministries that God hasn’t even birthed yet, as long as they are helping the church accomplish our mission. How the funds will be spent will be determined by the GSLEF Team, in conversation with the Church Council.

  • The fund is able to accept both cash and non-cash gifts like stock transfers, real estate, collectibles, etc.

  • Although all funds donated to Good Shepherd are managed with high integrity and great care, Endowment Fund assets are managed completely separately from other church funds; and they adhere to strict investment, gift acceptance and distribution policies.

  • Contributions can be made by check (“Endowment” on the memo line), or online. Gifts may also be transfers, bequest through a Will/Estate, or through irrevocable life insurance plans.

  • The endowment fund is in place and ready to receive gifts now and into the future.